Van Leer Claims Two State Gymnastics Titles

Erik Van Leer brought a combination of power and finesse, a little bit of showmanship, and a work ethic that was hard to beat every time he walked into a high school gym over the past four years as a member of the Evanston gymnastics team.

Saturday, he finished his career with a flourish.

Van Leer became the first ETHS gymnast to claim multiple state championships by taking top honors in both the vault and floor exercise Saturday at the second annual Illinois High School Gymnastics Coaches Association state meet held at Hoffman Estates High School.

The guy his teammates refer to as Thor --- for his physical resemblance to the fictional character --- put the hammer down on the competition on the last day of his gymnastics career, claiming medals in every event except pommel horse and leading the Wildkits to a fourth place finish in the team standings.

As a team, Evanston scored 149.45 points, a season best, and only trailed Glenbard West (164.40) and co-op teams from Wheaton (160.45) and Downers Grove (152.30) in the 10-team field.

Van Leer is not only the first Wildkit gymnast to win multiple individual state titles, he’s also the first to earn a repeat title after winning the vault crown as a junior. He’s the first ETHS athlete to win State on floor exercise and set a standard that likely will never be matched by anyone who wears the Wildkit uniform following him with a sizzling 9.9 effort in the vault.

The senior standout’s medal haul on Saturday, besides wins on vault and floor (9.6), included a second on still rings (9.35), a third on parallel bars (9.3), and a sixth on horizontal bar (8.5) that led to a fifth place all-around showing with a total of 54.95.

“The words just don’t come about the impact that Erik has had on our program,” said Evanston head coach Frank Erwin. “His impact has been monumental and long lasting. When it comes to showing the others around you how to focus and dedicate yourself to something, no one did it better than Erik.

“He was fantastic today and he ended an amazing career. He’s an exceptional person with an exceptional work ethic. I’ve worked with a lot of talented kids in my (coaching) career, but he really stands out to me. He hit some of his best routines today.”

Like last year, by the luck of the draw Van Leer was slotted into the vault in the first rotation of the State competition that was taken over by the coaches association in place of the Illinois High School Association last spring.

But unlike last year, when Wildkit fans held their breath all day watching the rest of the field chase Van Leer’s eventual winning score of 9.7, the senior strong man left no doubt in his initial event.

His landing cinched that 9.9 score in an event where one false step at the end tends to do a lot of damage in the minds of the judges.

“I wasn’t too worried after that,” Van Leer said with a grin. “I knew it would take a lot to beat a 9.9. And if someone could score a 10, then he deserved to finish above me.

“I made it a point not to watch anyone else on vault before it was my turn. I knew I had to stick it regardless of what anyone else did. It’s the same routine as last year and I knew if I stuck it, I could do it. The difference in the landing might seem small but the difference in your score can be big. In general it was the landing that did it for me. And after I got that one, I really didn’t feel any pressure after that. That led me to really enjoy the rest of the meet.”

He enjoyed it more than the competition. He beat out Glenbard West star Louie Diab by a margin of 9.6 to 9.5 on floor.

“I knew that was a good routine,” Van Leer added. “But I also knew that I had done better, so yes, it was a surprise to me to win it. Last year I thought I’d place higher on floor and I didn’t. So at this point in my career, if I know I’ve hit my best routine, I can walk away feeling OK no matter what the score (actually) is.

“I owe a lot to all of the coaches I’ve worked with at Evanston over the last four years for helping me with the mental side of it, or I couldn’t have done what I did today. They’ve been so helpful each and every year.”

Van Leer’s rise in the ranks as a senior might have been the most remarkable aspect of what turned into a rocky road to eventual success. After the high school season last spring, he quit his club team and didn’t do anything gymnastics-related training over the summer, having decided that he wasn’t going to compete in collegiate gymnastics and focusing on his new passion, competitive weight lifting.

He admitted that it took him half of his senior season to find a comfort zone back in the gym and didn’t let it stop him from climbing back to the top again.

“Mentally, I knew he’d found a new sport. But I told him you have too much invested in this sport not to reap the benefits now at the end,” Erwin pointed out. “I knew he could get back into it --- and he did. His work ethic is really incredible and when we got to the sectional and State tournaments, he really went after it.

“All of our guys stepped up and really came through for us today. That was our highest score of the season. We weren’t supposed to be as good this year (after standouts Mo Frischer and Xavier Probst graduated from ETHS) and we were only one point shy of last year’s team. That’s a very satisfying performance.”

Medals are awarded to the top 10 finishers in each event and Jacob Potter captured medals for the Kits on both pommel horse (tied for 8th at 8.8) and vault (7th at 9.4). Potter, a junior, placed 13th all-around (48.65) and along with sophomore Nathan Schlack (21st all-around at 44.95) will form the 1-2 punch for next year’s squad.

Potter and Schlack were part of the cheering section that chanted “Thor! Thor! Thor! God of Thunder” when it was Van Leer’s turn on his final event, still rings.

“This is the best ending I could have hoped for. Now I can leave gymnastics in peace and go after goals in something else, that’s just the kind of person I guess I am,” said Van Leer, who plans to major in environmental engineering at the University of Illinois next fall.

“What is the one thing I’m proudest of? Personally, I guess it’s that vault score --- that was really special to me. But what we’ve accomplished as a team (state runner-up last year, four straight conference championships), I can’t claim that was all my doing. There were others who started the momentum for this (team success) and I’m proud of the team beyond whatever I did as an individual.

“I’ve gotten so much out of gymnastics --- beyond just the results. It’s helped set me on a much better trajectory in my life than I would have been on without it.”